This invention relates to ball catching means including varied types of glove and mitt for use in baseball games.
Generally, a baseball glove has a ball receiving side formed by a front ply defining a ball receiving surface and a lining ply disposed over a back face of the front ply and coming into contact with a player's hand. In order to ease a ball impact, a felt material usually is applied to the front ply or the lining ply except a portion thereof defining a pocket (or a palm portion). A heel portion of the glove contains a thick absorbing material. On the other hand, the portion of the glove extending from the pocket to finger pieces is provided with only a thin felt material to facilitate ball catching movements.
It is, however, crotch portions of first-finger and second-finger pieces including no thick shock absorbing material that undergo the strongest ball impact. Therefore, according to recent practice, a hole is defined in a back portion of the first-finger piece to permit the player to keep his first finger out of the glove to ease the ball impact. However, such a modification is inadequate to ease the ball impact and has a disadvantage of slackening the ball catching movement of the first finger.
An improved construction has been devised wherein a shock absorbing material is inserted between the front ply and the lining ply at the pocket portion of the glove. Normally the pocket portion contains grease between the front ply and the lining ply, and it has been found that the shock absorbing material and the grease tend to mix together and as a result the shock abosrbing material deteriorates in its function.